Happy Anniversary
April 18th –Today’s the Day
Today marks WOMEN Unlimited Inc.’s 20th Anniversary. Twenty years ago, on a Monday in 1994, we held our first LEAD program. It was attended by 18 high-potential women from 13 Fortune 1000 companies.
Double-Decade Partnerships
Right from that first program back in 1994, we have actively worked with our corporate partners to create organization-wide support for the learning and development of their program participants. Now as then, we consult on effective selection strategies. We work with the participants’ managers on how they can offer active, on-going support before, during and after the program. We seek out input from our corporate partners and respond to specific needs for creating their diverse pipeline of talented women. In other words, more important than working for our partners, we work with our partners.
That’s why many top corporations have been with us from our earliest days. Together, we continue to pinpoint and develop their high-potential female talent. So on this our 20th Anniversary, we say thank you to all our corporate partners and celebrate their success and the successes of their talented women.
A Founder with vision and valor
Jean Otte, the founder of WOMEN Unlimited was, and is, a visionary. She saw with 20/20 clarity in 1994 (long before most) the need for major corporations to have talented women in leading positions.
She was relentless in her pursuit to convince Fortune 1000 companies of the bottom-line need for high-powered women at the top… and she succeeded. Her perseverance and her passion have resulted in WOMEN Unlimited’s running over 25 programs a year for high-potential women with over 10,000 alumnae and current participants and over 160 corporate partners. And, the clarity our participants gain on how to leverage their strengths to benefit their organizations has resulted in dramatic career advancement. Our latest survey shows that over half our graduates received a promotion within a year after completing their programs.
On a personal note: thanks Jean for having the vision and the valor to make WOMEN Unlimited the success it is today.
Proud of our Past. Excited About Our Future
As I look ahead to the next few years, I see WOMEN Unlimited building on its successes. In this global environment, there is a worldwide need for talented women in C-suites and on boards. We will be addressing that need by expanding internationally – slowly AND surely.
Additionally, we will be leveraging our experience and reputation as a major thought leader on how to develop a pipeline of talented women. We will continue to seek out ways to be a valued resource for leading corporations and will be hosting webinars and publishing white papers that share best practices for finding, developing, and retaining high-potential women. We’ll be providing advice and input on how male leaders can be more effective mentors for their talented women; and how corporations can break down the subtle barriers that may be standing in the way of advancing their next generation of women leaders.
I am proud, happy and excited to say that for us at WOMEN Unlimited, it’s all systems go for 20 and beyond!
We’d love to hear any 20th Anniversary thoughts you may have. Please post them here, on Facebook or on Twitter.
Dr. Rosina L. Racioppi
President & CEO